Joseph's head back in the game

Catcher Tommy Joseph, left, celebrates his two-run homer with Cody Asche in a spring training game against the Yankee last season. Joseph had a strong showing in spring training last year before being shut down for most of the season with a concussion. (Associated Press)

CLEARWATER, Fla. — When the Phillies left spring training last year, the player whose stock did the most rising during the seven weeks in Florida was Tommy Joseph.

Joseph, acquired from San Francisco in the Hunter Pence trade in late July 2012, was only 21, yet impressed coaches and teammates with the way he called a game, carried himself and hit (6-for-13, two doubles and a homer). So polished was Joseph that the Phillies quietly believed Joseph had a chance to begin 2014 as part of a platoon behind the plate if he carried his spring progress into the season.

Then the concussions came, and so did lessons that both the player and the organization learned about how a head injury can be subtly debilitating.

“It’s one of those things where I think we’re all pretty new to it,” director of player development Joe Jordan said of the intricacies of concussion diagnosis and recovery.

Advertisement

Joseph was hitting .209 with three homers after a month at Triple-A Lehigh Valley when he landed on the disabled list because of the concussion. Four weeks later he received clearance to return to action, but after going 1-for-16 when he was activated onto Class A Clearwater’s roster, clearly something wasn’t right.

He made another return in late June, but after three weeks of struggles he was shut down for the rest of the minor-league season.

“It is a little mysterious,” Joseph said. “I felt fine, and then my performance wasn’t reflecting it. Then I saw some doctors and they said I wasn’t fine, so it was pretty much a battle the whole year.”

It was mostly a lost season for Joseph. That’s the bad news. The good news is that he was well ahead of the curve in progression until that point, so he can afford a do-over.

“I’m not trying to play catch-up at all,” he said. “I’m just trying to build off of last season and the progressions I made in the offseason, and just going on that. I just want to pick up where I left off and make improvements every day. Hopefully I can stay healthy and go from there.”

Most importantly, after a brief consideration of moving him out from behind the plate, Joseph, the doctors and the organization agreed that the issues didn’t require a move.

“They were obviously a little worried about me getting back behind the plate with all the issues I had last summer,” Joseph said. “But every doctor since July or August said I’ll be OK, that I can catch. If anything else were to happen, we’d be able to take care of it. I wanted to stay behind the plate.”

What he can’t afford is another concussion.

“After he got cleared (during the Instructional League last fall), I felt like he had to go and play somewhere for him to mentally get over the fear of it happening again,” Jordan said. “I think it was a concern both for us and him, so he went to the Dominican (Winter League) for four weeks and he said he got dinged three times (by foul balls to the mask) down there, and he was fine.

“We wanted him to experience that down there as opposed to here in spring training.”

When asked if he is taking any precautions to protect against another concussion, Joseph shows off the neon padding added throughout the crown of his catcher’s skull cap.

“It’s supposed to help,” Joseph said. “I haven’t had any problems since using it. I think it’s a mix between what they use is football and in the military. It’s helped, and it’s comfortable. It hasn’t changed anything. It’s keeping me on the field, and that’s what we want to do.”

The catching landscape has changed quite a bit in the last year. The Phillies might have felt emboldened to let Carlos Ruiz walk this winter if Joseph had been healthy and productive in Triple-A last season.

Instead they locked up the veteran with a three-year contract. Backup Erik Kratz was traded, but the Phils signed veteran Wil Nieves and gave a non-roster invitation to another catcher with big-league experience in Lou Marson. Add to that Cameron Rupp and his solid 2013 season that included a September call-up, and Joseph has a lot more traffic on the road to a big-league job.

At least he’s back on the road, hoping to return to that promising kid who made such an impression last spring.

“That was the point we had to keep telling him,” Jordan said. “We hadn’t forgotten (what he showed last spring). Right now everything is good and hopefully we can keep it that way. Because he is a good player … that guy is still in there.”

NOTES

Miguel Gonzalez had another lackluster performance in live batting practice with Domonic Brown making good contact on almost every pitch he saw from the Cuban. “Well, it’s a guy who is coming back from injury and hasn’t pitched competitively in a couple of years,” manager Ryne Sandberg said. “We’re using a lot of patience with him.” … The Phillies announced that they and the Braves agreed to hold a pregame ceremony before their game at Bright House Field March 5 to honor the late Jim Fregosi, who was the Phils’ manager from 1991-96 and worked as a senior advisor for the Braves up until he died of a stroke earlier this month. … Both Sandberg and bench coach/fielding guru Larry Bowa liked what they saw of Maikel Franco when he took ground balls at first base. Franco, the Phils’ top prospect as a third baseman, will get some action at both corner positions. Sandberg stressed that both he and Cody Asche are competing for the third base job this spring, but that Franco having experience at first base can only help … Jonathan Pettibone, who received a cortisone shot to his inflamed right shoulder, will play catch this weekend and attempt to work his way back to the mound. Cole Hamels, who had biceps tendinitis this winter, is on track to throw his first bullpen session Tuesday.